Authors from every continent (about 60% of the authors are of cultural backgrounds that are not American)

Bridging Cultural and Developmental Approaches to Psychology

New Syntheses in Theory, Research, and Policy

Lene Arnett Jensen

Description

This cutting-edge book brings together eminent experts who propose ways to bridge cultural and developmental approaches to human psychology. The experts heed the call of cultural psychology to study different peoples around the world and to recognize that culture profoundly impacts how we think, feel, and act. At the same time, they also take seriously the developmental science perspective that humans everywhere share common life stage tasks and ways of learning. Doing what has not previously been done, the experts integrate key insights and findings from cultural and developmental research. The result is a book brimming with new and creative syntheses for theory, research, and policy. This book is in step with a world where culturally diverse peoples interact with one another more than ever due to migration, worldwide media, and international trade and travel. With these interactions come changes to cultures and the psychological development of their members, and the implications for scholarship and policy are thoughtfully examined here. The book covers a wide range of related topics. It addresses the intersection of development and culture for psychological processes such as learning and memory, for key contexts of development such as family and civil society, for conceptions of self and identity, and for how the life course is partitioned including a focus on childhood and emerging adulthood.With its inclusion of diverse life phases, diverse topics, and experts from diverse disciplines and cultures, this volume speaks to a broad range of developmental and cultural issues. The synthesis of cultural and developmental approaches should be exciting and eye-opening to anyone with an interest in human psychology in today's global world.

Bridging Cultural and Developmental Approaches to Psychology

New Syntheses in Theory, Research, and Policy

Lene Arnett Jensen

Author Information

Lene Arnett Jensen is Associate Professor of Psychology at Clark University, USA, where she holds the Oliver and Dorothy Hayden Junior Faculty Fellowship. Her research addresses moral and civic development, and cultural identity formation in the context of globalization. A native of Denmark, Dr. Jensen has resided in a number of countries, including Belgium, India and France. She lives in Massachusetts, USA, with her husband and twin children.

Contributors:

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett is Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University, USA. His main scholarly interests involve emerging adults (ages 18-29). His books include Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties (2004, Oxford University Press), and the two-volume International Encyclopedia of Adolescence (2007, Routledge). Dr. Arnett is also Editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research.

Oscar A. Baldelomar is a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He conducts research on ethnic identity development in Costa Rica and the United States. He uses psychological and anthropological methodologies, and has created new measures of identity development in children and adolescents. His research has been published in Child Development.

Xinyin Chen is Professor of Psychology at University of Western Ontario, Canada. He has received a William T. Grant Scholars Award and several other awards. He is interested in children's socioemotional functioning and relationships, with a focus on cross-cultural issues. He has edited several books, including Peer Relationships in Cultural Context and Socioemotional Development in Cultural Context. Dr. Chen has also published over 100 articles and chapters about culture and development.

Patricio Cumsille is Associate Profesor of Psychology and Vice-Chair for Research and Graduate Studies in Psychology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His research addresses adolescent autonomy development and quantitative methods. Dr. Cumsille is Editor of Psykhe, a leading psychological journal in Latin America.

William Damon is Professor of Education and Director of the Center on Adolescence at Stanford University, USA. Dr. Damon has written about moral character and commitment at all ages of life. His books include The Moral Child (1990), Some Do Care (1992) (with Anne Colby), Greater Expectations (1995), The Youth Charter (1997), Good Work (2001) (with Howard Gardner and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi), Noble Purpose (2003), The Moral Advantage (2004), and The Path to Purpose (2008).

Ranjana Dutta is Professor of Psychology at Saginaw Valley State University, USA. She holds a MS in child development and family studies from Maharaja Sayajirao University, India, and a Ph.D. in individual and family studies from Pennsylvania State University, USA. Dr. Dutta's scholarly interests include socialization in India and lifespan implications such as perceived control, goals, and wisdom.

Constance Flanagan is Professor of Youth Civic Development and Co-Director of the Civic and Community Engagement minor at Penn State University, USA. Her research concerns adolescents' theories of the 'social contract' and the role of mediating institutions as spaces where youth negotiate the social contract. Dr. Flanagan is co-editor of the new Wiley Handbook of Research and Policy on Youth Civic Engagement.

Jacqueline J. Goodnow is Research Professor at the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie University, Australia. She addresses how cultural contexts enriches our understanding of what development covers, and how individuals develop different skills and values. Dr. Goodnow's books include Cultural Practices as Contexts for Development (with Miller & Kessel, 1995, Jossey-Bass).

Michelle D. Leichtman is Associate Professor of Psychology and Lamberton Chair in the Study of Criminal Justice and Society at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, USA. Dr. Leichtman holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an MA and Ph.D. from Cornell University. She is a developmental psychologist who has published widely on issues surrounding children's memory development.

Jin Li is Associate Professor at Brown University, USA. Originally from China, she received her doctorate in human development from Harvard University. She studies how children of different cultures and ethnicities, particularly immigrant groups, develop learning beliefs and how they achieve. She also studies self-conscious emotions such as respect, pride, shame and guilt across cultures. She has received funding from a number of foundations and has published widely in professional journals and books.

M. Loreto Martínez is Associate Profesor of Psychology at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her research focuses on the development civic competencies and commitments in adolescence, in particular, as they relate to opportunities for social involvement in school, community, and youth organizations. Dr. Martinez is also conducting longitudinal research on adolescent autonomy in Chilean youth.

Jayanthi Mistry is Associate Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, USA. Originally from India, she received her doctorate from Purdue University, and then completed a two year NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah. Her scholarship takes a socio-cultural approach, addressing the processes whereby children from ethnic minority and immigrant families develop and negotiate multiple cultural orientations and identities.

A. Bame Nsamenang is Associate Professor of Psychology and Learning Science at the University of Yaoundé 1 (ENS) and Director of Human Development Resource Centre in Bamenda, Cameroon. His research explores local understandings of child and youth development in African cultural circumstances. Dr. Nsamenang's publications include Human Development in Cultural Context: A Third World Perspective (1992, Sage), and Cultures of Human Development and Education: Challenge to Growing up in Africa (2004, Nova).

Jean Phinney is Emeritus Professor of Psychology from California State University, Los Angeles, and currently a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.For 20 years, her research has focused on identity formation, particularly ethnic and cultural identity among adolescents and emerging adults. Dr. Phinney developed the widely used Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure. Her books include Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition (2006, with Berry, Sam & Vedder, Erlbaum).

Fred Rothbaum is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, USA. He has published widely on socialization and cultural processes as they relate to children's perceived control, behavior problems, attachment,and emotion regulation. Dr. Rothbaum is also President of the Child & Family WebGuide, a webportal providing research to parents, professionals and students.

T. S. Saraswathi is retired Senior Professor in Human Development and Family Studies from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India. Dr. Saraswathi is co-editor of the Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology (1997, vol.2), The International Encyclopedia of Adolescence (2007), and World Youth: Adolescence in Eight Regions of the Globe (2003). She has also edited Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Human Development (2003) and Culture, Socialization, and Human Development (1999).

Alice Schlegel is Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Research Associate at the McClelland Institute for Children, Youth and Families at the University of Arizona, USA. Her fieldwork has addressed the Hopi in the U.S., and adolescent industrial apprenticeship and civic participation in Germany and Italy. Her numerous publications include the worldwide survey, Adolescence: An Anthropological Inquiry (1991, with Barry, Free Press).

Richard Shweder is a cultural anthropologist and the William Claude Reavis Distinguished Service Professor of Human Development at the University of Chicago, USA. His research addresses moral reasoning, emotional functioning, gender roles, and explanations of illness. Dr. Shweder's books include The Child (2009, University of Chicago Press), Why Do Men Barbecue? (2003, Harvard University Press), and Thinking Through Cultures (1991, Harvard University Press).

Jaan Valsiner is Professor of Psychology at Clark University, USA. He brings a developmental axiomatic base to cultural analyses of psychological phenomena. Dr. Valsiner is Founding Editor of the journal Culture & Psychology (1995, Sage), and Editor-in-Chief of Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sciences (Springer). His books include The Guided Mind (1998, Harvard University Press), Culture and Human Development (2000, Sage), and the Cambridge Handbook of Socio-Cultural Psychology (2007, with Rosa, Cambridge University Press).

Yan Z. Wang is Assistant Professor at the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences at Northern Illinois University, USA. Dr. Wang received her M.A. from East China Normal University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her research addresses the influence of cultural frameworks on individual development and family dynamics. Dr. Wang has published on methodological issues in culture studies, dinnertime family interactions, and immigrant parenting.

Bridging Cultural and Developmental Approaches to Psychology

New Syntheses in Theory, Research, and Policy

Lene Arnett Jensen

Reviews and Awards

"This wonderful book broadens the central question in psychology of what changes in human development to address not just change across the lifespan, but change across contexts, cultures, and societies. The reframing of developmental science in this volume is vital for the understanding and fulfillment of human potential in global contexts." -- Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Worldwide globalization puts one of people's greatest assets, their manifold cultures, at risk. Each culture offers distinct worldviews that shape human development. Yet our research and teaching are dominated by the Western individualistic model of growing up. This book joins forces between the study of cultures and the study of human development, and offers new insights into the interplay between cultural change and human adaptation. It provides an agora of excellent scientists and hot topics from around the world, and a blueprint for tomorrow's aspiring research and application." -- Rainer K. Silbereisen, President, International Union of Psychological Science

"Jensen and her colleagues present a singularly creative, important, and timely integration of developmental and cultural perspectives on the course of human life. The book provides an exciting, rich, and compelling framework for productively fusing developmental and cultural theory, research, and applications in the service of understanding and enhancing human development." -- Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and Director, Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development, Tufts University

"In this remarkable book, the contributors cover extensive ground, from children's learning and memory to identity development, from emerging adulthood to acceptance of self and acceptance of the world. The resulting product is thought-provoking, informative, and enjoyable reading. This volume contributes significantly to our thinking concerning some of the most basic meta-theoretical debates in the fields of developmental psychology, cultural/cross-cultural psychology, and anthropology." -- Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Professor of Psychology, Koc University, and Member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences

"The rich essays in this volume explore the fundamental question of what it means to become a person. How is it that people are born with largely the same biological capacities, yet develop to think and behave in such different ways across cultures? Integrating two research streams that often seem unaware of each other's existence, the contributors provide a provocative and fascinating mapping of the many paths of human development. As a whole, the book offers a forceful argument for how the study of developmental psychology is very relevant to global contexts." --Steven J. Heine, Professor of Psychology, University of British Columbia

"Human developmental research is increasingly comparative, cross-cultural, and international. These outstanding researchers bring a rich, pluralist perspective alive in chapters that do not bracket context out, but richly incorporate context and meaning into our understandings of developmental stages, cognition, social behavior, and the desired outcomes of development." --Thomas S. Weisner, Professor of Anthropology, Departments of Psychiatry and Anthropology, University of California at Los Angeles

"Bridging Cultural and Developmental Approaches to Psychology: New Syntheses in Theory, Research, and Policy provides a tour-de-force integration of cultural and developmental perspectives, producing fresh insights for theory, research, and policy. Away with meaningless distinctions and oppositions, this volume makes clear that any serious study of human development must integrate culture and developmental perspectives which invariably produces more than the sum of its parts. It is a must read for scholars and practitioners alike." -- Michele Gelfand, Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park

"...they do provide useful information for a reader who has little knowledge of the beliefs of a particular culture...there are some interesting discussions that will challenge student thinking." --PsycCritiques